Cable-tv-budget-friendly-alternatives-kiplinger: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance. It's getting cheaper and easier to stream your favorite shows to your television set.
Not long ago, TV reception depended on how well your rooftop antenna picked up the signal. But now cables and satellites have commandeered our screens. Today, about 87% of U.S. households subscribe to a "multi-channel video service," mainly cable or satellite TV, according to Leichtman Research Group. Thanks to new offerings via the Internet, viewers are increasingly catching their favorite shows free or for a fraction of what their cable company charges.
And going online to view TV shows or movies doesn't mean you're stuck watching programs on your computer or tablet screen. The Apple TV box ($99), for example, streams iTunes, Netflix, YouTube and some sports programming to your TV. You may already be paying for Netflix or other services that can substitute for cable, and some replacement programming is free. Television A new antenna or shows ordered a la carte from the Web may be all you need. Netflix. 15-minutes-fixes-credit-score-creditcards: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance. Improving your credit score can feel like a gargantuan task.
But by spending just 15 minutes, you can give your credit score anywhere from a small bump to a major boost. Here are some tips from credit experts on quick — and sometimes easy — ways to raise your score. 1. Set up automatic bill payment or alerts. "The one thing you need to do is pay bills on time — that has the biggest impact on your score," says Carrie Coghill, director of consumer education for FreeScore.com. Money should not be the reason to avoid a baby. For many parents, having a new baby is a scary prospect, indeed.
There are sleepless nights, tons of responsibility, and for many, the possibility of going deep into a financial hole. Yes, babies are expensive, toddlers are even more so, and then preschoolers take it all. And let's just forget about school-age children and teenagers. Denial is the only way to get ready for that mess. Still, there is no reason to skip a baby for financial reasons. More from The Stir: The Most Hilariously Unflattering Baby Photos Ever 1. 2. More from The Stir: There Is Nothing Wrong With Paying Money for a Certain Gender 3. 4. 5. More from The Stir: 8 of the Dumbest Baby Products Ever 6. 7. These are just a few tips, but they will make the financial burden easier to shoulder. What did you do to make kids affordable?
Image via yomanimus/Flickr. Tips-free-vacation-bankrate: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance. Americans are notorious for using just a fraction of their allotted vacation days each year.
Part of the reason may be our workaholic tendencies, but another part is the sheer expense of travel. From the cost of plane tickets to the price of tourist attractions, it's not long before many of us have burned through thousands of dollars just to get a little rest and relaxation. It doesn't have to be that way. Savvy travelers know that if you play your cards right, you can get nearly every vacation expense, from transportation to lodging and food, without shelling out a single penny. Follow these tips for finding free vacation travel perks. Free Plane Tickets For air travelers, the currency of choice for free vacation travel is the frequent-flier mile. One option: Grab any of the numerous credit cards that offer a sign-up bonus of at least 25,000 miles, says Chris Guillebeau, founder of Travelhacking.org. To make the most of your miles, remember to time your reservation wisely. Free Lodging. Social-security-mistakenly-reports-deaths-cnnmoney: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.
Hardware budgets are feeling the pinch of our tepid economy, and many companies are making employees use their laptops longer.
If you are starting to tell your folks to keep plugging along with their laptops for four or five years instead of just three, you might be running into an unexpected expense: dead laptop batteries. Well, to be fair, your laptop's batteries probably aren't completely dead. But since Lithium Ion batteries tend to lose about 20% of their capacity each year, a typical three-year-old laptop might only get about an hour or so on a charge, which might not even get your folks through an entire meeting. Here are four simple tips to forestall the day that you need to replace those batteries: Keep it cool.
Recondition your battery regularly. Remove it when you're not using it. Start with a super-sized battery. More Stories on Yahoo! • Things Twitter Won't Tell You • Great American Stores Starving for Customers • The Plastic Ceiling: Credit Cards You Can't Have.